He was transferred to Our Lady's Hospital Crumlin in Dublin, where he died, after undergoing emergency treatment in hospital in Cork.

The child had been playing with a friend near his home in Tir Cluain when he fell into the Owenacurra River, which runs alongside the housing estate and the Mill Road.

A spokeswoman for the hospital made no comment.

The boy's neighbour John Shanahan said his 10-year-old son came running home and raised the alarm and his brother-in-law drove to try to rescue the boy from the water. He said the community was in shock.

"We're devastated... It could be any one of our children," he told the Irish Examiner.

"My wife has said it from the start since we moved in here four years ago, that the river is a danger and the fence was inadequate."